Tuesday 4th - On the way from Lisbon to Perth, I landed at Changi Singapore Airport at 6,30 am.
Just outside the corridor was a booking counter advertising "Free Singapore Tours", which is sponsored by Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport Group and the Singapore Tourism Board for transit passengers who have more than 5,30h stop-overs at Changi Airport.
I had an 8 hour stop-over so good to go! Funnily enough the tours had just restarted the day before, so I was lucky to have somewhere to spend my time.
I enrolled in the 8AM tour, which can also be booked online or at the tour counters in transit terminals 2 and 3. I had to leave my luggage at the Luggage Storage and then joined another 6 people for the tour. We had to go through Immigration to get a day visa, which we applied for online when booking the tour.
There are 3 different tours but the 8AM one was to the suburb of Tampines - a 2 1/2 hours tour, where we could see the local housing, Central Park and its playgrounds, Tampines Hub - Singapore first integrated community and leisure hub and then Changi Beach Park.
Tampines has won the United Nations World Habitat Award, for being an example of high quality, high density affordable housing and community living.
The very neat suburb is full of high-rise buildings, but there was a huge park - Central Park, with kids zones, garden zones to plant, exercise zones, meeting zones...
We were told that in Singapore all buildings get an external paint renovation every 5 years, to which the apartment owners contribute with a monthly fee. No wonder everything looked neat and new! But then, life is expensive in Singapore, and the guide told us one of the 4 bedroom apartments in the building across from the park had recently sold for the equivalent of about 1,5 million AUD!! Wow!!
But despite being among the world's most expensive property markets, about 90% of Singaporeans own property! Very impressive.
The Tampines Hub - It had about 7 floors, with sports court, library, theatre, a garden at the top, a community centre, a Services hub where people can register births, weddings, deaths, find jobs, do their wills, register a business, submit medical claims... all central to the suburb.
Our Tampines Hub
The top floor garden for the community
Advert for Subway - It's cheesy, but you can do this, you're almost there! and Olive, your efforts will be worth it!
Outside the Tampines Hub
From the Tampines Hub, the bus picked us up and took us to the Changi Village Markt Hawker Centre where they sell street food at very reasonable prices, and where the guide bought us fried bananas while we sat down to taste them.
Then we visited thenearby Changi Beach Park, a 28 hectare beach park, which retains the village atmosphere of the 1960's and 70's. It's apparently not a very good swimming beach as it is near the container harbour, but the gardens are great for picnics, there are cycling lanes, and I saw lots of birds too..
And it was time to return to the airport. The guide asked if anyone still had extra time, and those could be dropped at the Jewel if they wished, and I was one of those.
The Changi Jewel is open 24 hours and most shops operate between 10am to 10pm and can be externally or via Arrival Hall of Terminal 1.
The 10 storey high building (5 above and 5 below ground) with a 40mt indoor waterfall surrounded by lush plants, has over 280 international flagship stores as well as exclusive stores, eating outlets as well as a myriad of attractions.
It is recommended you take 5 to 6 hours to see it all, but I took no more than 2 as I wanted to make sure I had time to collect my luggage and then take the internal train to another terminal for my flight.
I also just visited 3 floors, and even though I'm not a big shopper nor a fan of big shopping malls, I was mainly wowed by that amazing waterfall and plants.
Celebrating Disney's 100th anniversary
When I finished, I went back to the airport, retrieved my bag from the Luggage storage, and went and sat close to my departing lounge.
On the way I took photos of sweet "Easter bunnies and eggs" - it was just before Easter....
The Louis Vuitton shop front which seems to have different "murals" on its facade, statues scattered all over the airport....
On the train from Terminal 1 in front of Jewel to Terminal 2 from where I was departing to Perth on a Scoot flight.
Before we landed in Perth the Scoot plane cabin came alive with rainbow lights. What fun!
Rainbow light just before landing in Perth
A youtube video about Jewel if you want to get a better idea of what can be seen.
Friday 21st - we were invited to join friends for a Portuguese Buffet dinner at the Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club in Dalkeith.
Food was fabulous with so much choice....I just felt sorry I couldn't try it all.
The menu
Welcome to the Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club
Sunday 23rd - A morning picnic at Point Walter, by the Swan River, organized by the Perth Codfish Academy.
In the afternoon I met up with one of the Doctors from my clinic and her husband and another couple, and we went to watch the movie: "Vermeer - the Greatest Exhibition". The movie offers people a chance to experience this sold-out exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, where 28 works of the Dutch painter, who lived between 1632 and 1675 are on show. The film is narrated by the director of the Rijksmuseum and the curators of the exhibition. The small movie house was full, and we really enjoyed the movie.
Afterwards we went to the Drs house for snacks on her balcony overlooking the river.
Friday 28th - The members of Community Harvest got together at the Canning Agricultural Society kitchen to make sauerkraut and kimchi. I'm not a fan of kimchi as I find it too spicy for my tastebuds, so I made 2 jars of sauerkraut.
Afterwards we sat down for coffee/tea and shared the snack we had each taken. I had made "Portuguese tarts", not as good looking as the original thing, but they were tasty :)
Saturday 29th - meeting of the committee members of the Portuguese Women's Association at Espresso and Prosecco Cafe, in the city centre, to plan our next event in July.
Hot chocolate and cheesecake
Sunday 30th - we joined a group of Portuguese friends for a picnic at Perth's botanic gardens - Kings Park. It was a beautiful day, warm, great food to share and we met new members of the community.
View of Perth city when we were leaving the picnic at Kings Park
I haven't painted furniture for a while but was inspired to paint a few sterling silver odd tea-sets that I had bought for very cheap on Marketplace.
Pink set, gray set, green teapot and turquoise set
This month I also made a few loaves of Sourdough bread from a starter that was given to me and I tried my hand at soft fresh cheese with rennet I brought from Portugal.
Cream cheese, sourdough bread, a slice of bread with fresh cheese and fig jam
Signs:
A caboose (number plate seen on a truck) can be a railway wagon with accommodation for the crew
I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you. Just follow the Linky steps below. Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere. The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.
Thanks, Sami
This mural shows the Augustusburg Palace, in Bruhl, Germany, that I showed in my last travel post.
It was painted in 2015 by Paul Schneider and it took about 400 hours. It shows the European stars surrounded by trees and in between the tree trunks you can see traditional German houses and the Augustusburg Palace in the centre, and then some other European sights like Dutch windmills, etc.
I had shown this one in September 2022, but I just had the front of the mural as it had been taken while driving by in a car. I took more detailed photos now, and I noticed the side also has a mural, so here it is again in it's entirety.
Then it was time to go home, eat a light lunch, get dressed up and drive to the wedding venue - at the lovely Quinta dos Castanheiros in Leiria, where the wedding was taking place at 3pm.
We have known the bride's family for 53 years! I met her mother when she was about 6 or 7 years old. The bride's great-grandparents looked after my little sister when we moved to South Africa, they were like our grandparents. How time flies!!
Pre-wedding photo - Brother in law, sister, me and my parents
Just Married sign at the wedding venue
It was a beautiful wedding, everything was picture perfect, the food was great...
The DJ played a variety of music - Portuguese, English, German and Indian to cater for the nationalities present at the wedding. The bridal couple live and met in Germany and they had a lot of German guests present.
Waving our serviettes to welcome the bride and groom - dancing and you can see my 90 year old Dad also danced and the bride and groom listening to speeches.
Then it was time to go outside and toast the couple who walked through a double line of guests holding sparklers onto a little cabana above a pond, where they cut the cake while the fireworks exploded.
When we returned indoors the hall behind the dining hall where we sat for dinner was all set up with buffet tables full of meats, seafood, soup, and the desserts that had been there for self-service during dinner.
I couldn't really fit much more in, so just took a bowl of hot soup (it was cold outside) and a couple of prawns and potato crisps.
After more dancing it was time to go home and we left the venue it was almost 1am! Luckily we were just 15 minutes away.
The bridal couple with our family
Sunday 2nd - Sadly the family had to forego lunch with the bridal couple and their families as I had a flight to Frankfurt that afternoon, so we packed, checked-out of the Airbnb and drove to Lisbon.
My return flight to Australia wasn't too well planned, as I had to stay overnight in Frankfurt as my flight to Singapore was at 12,30pm on the 3rd of April, but I couldn't get a flight from Lisbon arriving at least 2 hours earlier, hence I had to fly the day before.
After a 3-hour flight I arrived in Frankfurt airport at 9pm, picked my bags and caught a taxi to the Moxy Frankfurt Airport Hotel where I had booked a room.
A quirky and modern hotel, I couldn't figure out where the reception desk was when I arrived, as the area was dimly lit and it looked like a bar to me.... well it was, part bar, part reception, (odd) but the small bedroom was comfortable, and the shower had the best pressure ever!
The signs in the hotel were great!
Monday 3rd - After a simple buffet breakfast I checked out and got a taxi just outside the hotel to take me to the airport about 10 minutes away.
Check-in was quick, but going through Passport and luggage control is always a slow process at Frankfurt airport... specially when the person in front of you gets stopped and all his stuff gets taken out of his hand luggage, and 2 policemen with guns show up! Scary!!
But it all turned out to be ok, and finally my bags came through and I could move on.
On my 12-hour Air Singapore flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, I was lucky to have a free chair in between my window seat and the person sitting in the aisle seat, so I put the seat arms up and had more space to relax, so even managed a few hours sleep.
I watched three great movies from 2022:
The Whale - with an unrecognizable Brandan Fraser who plays a morbidly obese, reclusive teacher who is trying to restore his relationship with his daughter after a divorce.
A man called Otto - I love Tom Hanks movies, and this one didn't disappoint! Here he plays a grumpy old man who had lost his wife recently and who is planning to commit suicide after his retirement. He meets the new neighbours across the street and things slowly start to change...
The Fabelmans- with the lovely Michelle Williams, this is a semi-autobiographical story based on Steven Spielberg's adolescence and first years as a filmmaker, exploring how the power of films can help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family.
Have you seen any of these?
And you can read about the rest of the month in my next post next week :)
For other signs from around the world please check Tom's blog via this link.
I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you. Just follow the Linky steps below. Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere. The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week.
Thanks, Sami
While walking around the town centre of Bruhl (Germany) when I visited my daughter Karina in March this year, I spotted this mural on the side of a house.
It's a great Trompe-l'œil, if it wasn't for the "chimney smoke" I would have thought the house was real.
And in a totally different style, a couple of electrical boxes around the city.
I love murals and street art. If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you. Just follow the Linky steps below. Once you start looking you will find murals everywhere. The "Monday Mural" meme goes live on Monday at 12,01AM, Perth,Western Australian time. Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters. Looking forward to your mural finds this week. Thanks Sami.
Mural spotted across the road from Bruhl station, when Karina and I were on our way to Cologne - a pretty "garden" painted on all sides of an electrical box.
